The Ethics Of Data Handling And Information Privacy

Johnson asserts that surveillances that are further promoted by increased use of technology for gathering data undermine the citizen’s ability and potential for democratic citizenships. As such, living in a panopticon implies that persons have limited space of independently developing themselves.

Data Protection Act 1998 – gives individuals the right to know what information is held about them, and those that processes personal information must comply with eight principles, which makes sure that personal information is fairly and lawfully processed; processed for limited purposes; adequate, relevant and not excessive; accurate and up to date; not kept for longer than is necessary; processed in line with your rights; secure; not transferred to other countries without adequate protection;

2 The Privacy Act 1988 (Commonwealth) is the law that explains the professional, ethical obligations related to privacy and confidentiality,

Privacy Act 1988’s purpose is to standardize how personal information is collected, stored, used, disclosed and how this information is accessed. There’s 13 Australian Privacy Principals that relate to Government and Private sectors handling information. Stipulations for credit reporting, and health and medical research professions accessing and managing information when unable to seek consent.

Personal data are regulated by United Nations and urges States to implement effective measures to ensure that information concerning a person´s private life does not reach the hands of person who are not authorized by law to receive,process and use it.Thus private data are protected not only by law of States also by international laws, and concerning computer misuse

Ethical issues and the use of Personally Identifiable Information in computer systems, applications, and the internet.

The strength of this paper is that it provides a comprehensive explanation on the foundation of ethical theories such as utilitrianism, deontology, and virtue. It also provides actual examples of ethical code provisions that address the information collection. In addition, the paper explains the fundamental concepts of the non-disclosure agreement in an easily understandable manner by providing a brief explanation to each technical term. However, the weakness of this paper is that the sections and contents are not organized well, wherein there are lists and enumerations that are not formatted into bullets or numbers. The introduction is relatively short and it does not sufficiently highlight the importance of the paper.

The ethical requirements protect confidential information and only disclose such information as mandated by law or where committed by law for a valid purpose (APA, 2005). In this particular case, the social worker chose not to break confidentiality without her clients consent because there was not a valid purpose in doing so according to her code of ethics in her profession. Had she complied with the court order, she would have gone against her professions ethical code and could have faced punishment and possible loss of licensing. The justice system could not force the social worker to testify because there was no imminent danger involved.

Privacy is another legal concept of ethics law refers to the right of clients privacy of place, time, and manner (Stromberg et al., 1993).

Privacy is an obligated right for each and every individual. Privacy has different views and aspects which can vary for each individual. On a basic insight, privacy can express an individual’s security to be drawn only to them therefore eliminating the risk of others around watching you or even snooping in an intentional attempt to grasp some sort of information. There is another side to privacy as there is a differentia between the privacy of one’s self and the privacy under law. The different comes as the information that is protected under these laws is not within our control. (Office of the Victorian Privacy Commissioner, 2012).

Common law makes provision for a confidential relationship and the duty of confidence. The Data Act 1998 and Human Rights Act 1998 have introduced enforceable rights for service users about how the information they provide is used. The Data Protection Act has restrictions on storing personal data in all formats, written and electronic. The Human Rights Act 1998 emphasises respect for privacy life and strengthens the hand of those advocating increased privacy for the individual. Due to these Acts and the duty of confidentiality there is a potential conflict between protecting the privacy and confidentiality of individuals and protecting the public, and a duty of care to the service

Over the past decade the world has gotten much smaller due to the electronic communication the Internet has fostered. While this promotes business and international relations, problems arise regarding the protection of individuals’ personal information. Many countries around the world have developed privacy policies and laws protect an individual's information in the realm of electronic communication. Universal enforcement gets complicated because the Internet is not restricted to one country; it’s worldwide. As a result, concerns arise regarding the compatibility of various countries' privacy policies. This paper will discuss the current legislation in place for various major

The concern about privacy on the Internet is increasingly becoming an issue of international dispute. ?Citizens are becoming concerned that the most intimate details of their daily lives are being monitored, searched and recorded.? (www.britannica.com) 81% of Net users are concerned about threats to their privacy while online. The greatest threat to privacy comes from the construction of e-commerce alone, and not from state agents. E-commerce is structured on the copy and trade of intimate personal information and therefore, a threat to privacy on the Internet.

Personal data is quickly becoming a commodity in today's high technology world. This information is used by banks, investment and brokerage companies, credit card merchants, government agencies (local, state and federal), and consumer product-based companies. Most people probably don't realize the amount of information that's shared between companies, or how often it's done. Many companies sell and share customer data to help sell products and find out what new products they should produce. Other uses include gathering information about inventory levels to help better determine what types of products are bought at which store, when and how often. This can be used for inventory and production, to make sure that the store (or

Privacy concerns on the web have become an undesirable consequence that people face with cyber technology. The ability of computers to gather and store unlimited amount of information from the internet raises privacy issues concerning an individual’s informational privacy. A person’s right to informational privacy is the ability to control the flow of their personal information, including the transfer and exchange of that information. An invasion of informational privacy denies people the right to control who accesses their personal information. Many internet users are unaware that they are more likely to compromise their privacy when using the internet services such as search engines and social networking sites. The internet provides access to an incredible amount of information from all over the world. Some internet users use the internet exclusively as a source of information while other internet users use the internet to create and disseminate information for others to use. However, the vast amount of information floating on the internet would not